A typical blood purification apparatus for giving dialysis treatment includes an arterial blood circuit and a venous blood circuit that form a blood circuit for extracorporeally circulating the blood of a patient, a blood purifier for purifying the blood that is extracorporeally circulated through the blood circuit, and an apparatus body provided with various treatment devices, such as a blood pump, for causing the blood circuit and the blood purifier to perform blood purification treatment. A vascular access catheter or puncture needles (an arterial puncture needle and a venous puncture needle) are attachable to the distal ends of the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit.
When the blood pump is activated after the arterial puncture needle and the venous puncture needle, for example, are stuck into the patient, the blood of the patient flows through the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit while being purified by the blood purifier. In the case of dialysis treatment, a dialysate introduction line for introducing dialysate into the blood purifier and a dialysate drain line for discharging drain liquid from the blood purifier are connected to the blood purifier.
Typically, the dialysate introduction line is provided with a heating device (a heater) for heating the dialysate to be introduced into the blood purifier to a predetermined temperature. The heating device is provided with a temperature-detecting device that is capable of detecting the temperature of the dialysate. The heating device is under feedback control in which the detected temperature is controlled to fall within a predetermined range. Since the dialysate to be introduced into the blood purifier is heated by the heating device, the temperature of the blood that is under extracorporeal circulation through the blood circuit can be prevented from dropping at the contact with the dialysate with blood purification membranes in the blood purifier interposed therebetween. Such a technique has not been disclosed by any publicly known invention, and there is no information on patent literature to be cited.